Comic #6762: veiled

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Description

Sure! Here’s a detailed transcription of the comic:

Title at the top:
"In order to design society, we must imagine we are looking through a veil of knowledge!"

Panel 1:
Caption: "AT THE ANNUAL COLLOQUIUM OF EVIL PHILOSOPHERS…"
Text: "We must imagine we will be born in a society knowing all our future personal characteristics: gender, age, race, intelligence, talents, social status, and so on."

Panel 2:
Text: "We must then each ask ourselves, how could I structure society so that by picking the conditions of birth for myself I can benefit the most?"

Panel 3:
Text (from a character): "The society in which I can most minmax for personal gain is the one we should strive for - the one with the greatest amount of inequality!"

Panel 4:
Text (from another character): "But, evil John Rawls, evil Robert Nozick says we shouldn't focus on achieving inequality, but rather focus on a process in which actions are unjust."

Panel 5:
Text (from the character again): "After all, if we achieve inequality through fair and justified actions, no true evil has been accomplished!"

Panel 6:
Text (another character responds): "Oh yeah!? Well what if a sequence of unjust actions leads to a fair distribution of wealth in a prosperous society!?"

Panel 7:
Text (another character): "Don't yell at me - I think you're both wrong. I'm an evil communitarian. I think evil deeds should be done in consideration of local traditions and historical context, not some high-flung abstract theory!"

Panel 8:
Text (from an audience member): "Boooooring."

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